Conventional or prior art pallet structures are commonly seen and used within commercial warehouses and distribution centers, home appliance retail stores, and many other large commercial or industrial facilities, in order to support and transport large-sized packages, bales, articles, products, palletized loads, or the like. Such conventional or prior art pallet structures, however, comprise rigid structures which are commonly fabricated from wood or plastic materials, which are quite dense and heavy, and therefore, such conventional or prior art pallet structures comprise a considerable amount of weight. Accordingly, in view of the fact that shipping costs are based upon the weight of the items being shipped, the costs involved in shipping or transporting the pallet structures from their manufacturing plants to distribution centers or end use facilities can be quite substantial. In addition, since such conventional or prior art pallet structures comprise rigid, substantially planar structures, they cannot be, and are not designed to be, readily knocked-down or disassembled so as to be rendered compact for transportation and storage purposes. Therefore, these various factors render the conventional or prior art pallet structures costly to fabricate, costly to transport due to their relatively large amount of weight, and costly to transport and store due to the fact that such planar pallet structures do not comprise knockdown structures which would otherwise facilitate the compact arrangement and storage of the same.
Still yet further, one type of article, or set of articles, that is normally adapted or desired to be transported by means of pallet structures comprises animal hides. The hides are usually processed or treated within a suitable brine bath solution or fluid, a plurality of the hides are then disposed in folded states upon the pallet structures, and the hides then undergo a pressing operation so as to effectively remove the excess brine treatment bath solution or fluid in order to minimize the total weight of the amassed hides. Since the hides are still wet, however, the pallet structures must be fabricated from materials, which, again, are usually rigid, dense, and heavy, but in addition, cannot be susceptible to deterioration under damp or wet conditions. The pallets, with the animal hides disposed and subsequently secured thereon, can then be deposited into shipping containers for shipping and transportation purposes. While these preparatory, shipping, and transportation procedures have been viable and satisfactory in connection with, for example, full-size animal hides, or for that matter, any articles that can be readily stacked and contained upon a pallet structure, there are other articles that are not able to, in effect, be self-contained upon a pallet structure. One type of such other articles may be smaller animal body parts, such as, for example, “face plates”, which, as known in the industry, comprise portions of the skin, covering the heads of the cattle, and which are used to form shoe leather products. Additional types of such other articles may comprise any fluid-like or flowable bulk materials, such as, for example, dry-bulk chemicals, powdered and palletized resins, flour, coffee beans, grains, and the like.
Accordingly, all of these types of articles need to be pre-disposed within suitable flexible containers such that they may then be secured, in effect, in bulk upon the pallet structures. Still further, in connection with the aforenoted objective of fabricating pallet structures which are capable of being readily knocked-down or disassembled so as to be rendered compact for transportation and storage purposes, it is also desirable to have these bulk material containers attached to such knocked-down or disassembled pallet structures so as to always ensure the fact that when the knocked-down or disassembled pallet structures are ready to be erected or assembled, the bulk material containers will already be present and will be immediately available for receiving or charging thereinto the bulk materials to be shipped and transported. These procedures would, again, not only streamline or enhance the efficiency of the shipping or transportation of the pallet structures with their cargo loads secured thereon, but would also render the arrangement or storage of such pallet structures more compact and efficient.
A need therefore exists in the art for a new and improved combination pallet structure and article container wherein the pallet structure would preferably be light in weight, would be capable of being easily erected or assembled, and conversely, would be capable of being easily knocked-down or otherwise disassembled, whereby the pallet structure would be relatively economical to fabricate, economical to ship or transport, easy and economical to store, and quick and easy to erect or assemble for use as well as quick and easy to knock-down or disassemble for shipping, transportation, and storage, and wherein further, the pallet structure would have an article container fixedly or removably mounted thereon whereby the articles to be contained therein can be immediately deposited or charged into the article container.